Honda 25 BHP ahead of Renault – Arai

Honda’s Motorsport chief Yasuhisa Arai has unexpectedly claimed that the Honda power is 25 BHP (18.6 kW) better than French manufacturer, Renault power unit.

After yet another disastrous Belgian Grand Prix for the Honda powered McLaren, the Japanese based F1 power supplier aims on matching the Ferrari power unit by the end of the season.

The next F1 race Monza, McLaren do not expect to be particularly competitive, as the circuit characteristics is completely opposite of the strengths of the Honda powered McLaren. McLaren driver, Fernando Alonso expects a ‘painful’ weekend at Monza. While McLaren are confident that their pace deficit they will encounter in Monza will just be a one off.

The team are confident the round after Monza, which is Singapore could be the team’s best season, as the circuit characteristics suits the Honda, McLaren partnership. Jenson Button has said he expects an ‘A Game’ at Singapore.

Earlier this week, Jenson Button called off McLaren’s target of a podium, and admitted due to the struggles of the team, they are just aiming to bag in some good points.

Here is what Yasuhisa Arai said:

“Our engine is a little bit behind Ferrari but much better than the Renault team. Mercedes are still so far away.

“But I have confidence that the second half of the season, we will try hard to catch the top two teams.”

“It may be that it will be difficult to catch the top teams as they have good reliability and good combustion characteristics.

“But I want to be close to the top teams by the end of the season.”

“The package is very tiny, so of course we would like to make it bigger, but compact is better,”